Sunday, August 02, 2015

Yet Alderson admitted the conversation “actually had quite an impact.” In all of his years in baseball, the general manager said he had never seen a player in Wheeler’s position take the unusual step of calling.

“Again, if you go back to Wednesday and even this conversation, we’re talking about human beings,” Alderson said. “We all develop an attachment to each other and whatever capacity we serve, so it’s hard.”

Placed on the disabled list following a Thursday night outing when the pain in his right elbow became “a little more than I expected, and more than I could tolerate,” Burnett has an appointment with Pirates team doctors on Monday in Pittsburgh. He expects the diagnosis to be one of two things.

“It’s either [the ulnar ligament],” said Burnett, who had the requisite Tommy John surgery for that in 2003, “or the flexor [tendon]. I’m prepared for both. Either way, I’m not going to be bothered by ...

This is the first time Wright will have three straight days of baseball activity, and he recently completed back-to-back days Tuesday and Wednesday.

Wright is fielding and taking batting practice in the cage.

“Everything’s good. Now it’s a matter of getting the reps without overdoing it,” Wright said after working out prior to Friday’s game against the Nationals. “Incremental steps every day where not only are you doing the baseball thing a number of days in a row but you’re also kind ...

At least Dan Shaughnessy won’t lose the one front office guy who might like him.

Lucchino, meanwhile, remains an equity partner of the Sox ballclub and expects to remain a part of the front office in a different role.

The Sox do not yet have the framework of a new deal with Lucchino, officials said. They have had discussions with him about assuming a different role that moves beyond his current involvement in day-to-day operational details to broader strategic conversations, both with the Red ...

Saturday, August 01, 2015

Last winter’s genius is this summer’s dummy, at least according to Ken Rosenthal.

Ken Rosenthal has been a favorite on this site for a long time. His reporting skills are fantastic. He also seems like a very nice guy, a nice guy who would be great to watch a game with at the pub or at the ball park. Like a lot of reporters, however, I’m not particularly enamored with his analysis. Although I like his reporting on my favorite team, I wouldn’t want the Red Sox following his suggestions. Neither ...

The addition of Happ, 32, whose first name is pronounced “Jay,” resulted directly from right elbow inflammation that sent A.J. Burnett to the 15-day disabled list Friday. Burnett made the All-Star team because of a 2.11 first-half ERA and 100 strikeouts in 119⅓ innings. In three starts since, he has allowed 32 hits and 18 earned runs in 16 innings. Huntington said Burnett informed the team of elbow pain after his start ...

If this is true, it’s really a stupid way to conduct business. It’s a complete waste of time. Such an offer is predicated on the stupidity of the other guy. It’s insulting and counterproductive.

On the radio, he said the Diamondbacks “did not get a very positive response” from the Padres in their attempts to acquire Kimbrel, an All-Star closer. He was then asked if the Padres were reluctant to make a deal within the division.

Plenty of words have been written about how the big leaguers will improve their new teams’ postseason chances, but not nearly as many about how the prospects will help their new clubs rebuild. Who were the best phenoms who changed addresses in the past eight days? We’ll rank the top 20:

1. Daniel Norris, LHP, Tigers (from Blue Jays in David Price trade)
Detroit parted with an ace left-hander in the present to get one for the future (not to mention two ...

I’m not sold on Alfaro. If he’s the centerpiece of the deal, they may end up disappointed. Luckily they received a bunch of other bodies so somebody else can help make this deal a winner.

In this deal, the Phillies get quality and quantity. Alfaro will be viewed as the centerpiece. The Phillies have long been linked to him in their search for a difference-making young catcher. Alfaro has the potential to be exactly that. He has a power bat and a very strong arm, though he’s viewed as raw behind ...

Hill said he’s hoping Marlins fans realize that the core of the team is still intact, and that trading Haren, Latos and Morse — as well as closer Steve Cishek, sent off to St. Louis last week — doesn’t represent a total reset of Miami’s master plan.

Coming on the heels of the last couples days, this might be one of the best things I’ve seen in mid-season baseball. Is it dusty in here or is it just me?

The news spread like wildfire, and Flores got wind of it during Thursday’s game against the Padres. He began crying on the field, as he was about to leave the organization he’d been with since he was 16 years old.

And then the trade fell though. Awkward.

When he might have otherwise been in Milwaukee with new teammates, Flores started ...

By absorbing about $15 million from the Marlins – the struggling Morse is owed $8 million next season – Los Angeles paid more than $40 million in contracts for which it has no use. This is where money is best spent, because swallowing others’ problematic contracts or fronting money for valuable players allows the Dodgers to ask for premium talent in return, and in Wood and Peraza, it got just that.

Following his 1959 season—his fifth full year in the bigs—Hall-of-Fame outfielder Roberto Clemente asked for a raise, to $23,000. GM Joe L. Brown, architect of those great Pirates teams of the ‘60s and ‘70s, replied with a letter politely but firmly telling Clemente that he wasn’t good enough.

The Yankees have expressed a willingness to pay all of the $28 million remaining through 2017 on Kimbrel’s deal, but it isn’t known what they are offering in the way of players. They declined to surrender shortstop prospect Jorge Mateo, as was already reproted on CBSSports.com.

Conversation with [Braves manager] George Stallings this season has been of a most unique variety, Mr. Stallings using a form of speech very much like that of the Arapaho Indians, whose grunting gutturals are so obscure that two Arapahos cannot understand each other in the dark. This is about the way Mr. Stallings talks for publication this summer, according to a writer in the Cincinnati Times-Star: